Karl Ellison asked about roll repair.  There are several techniques for
handling bits of tape that I either developed by myself or learned from
friends.  Here are a few.

Build a roll-repair table before starting.  Make it out of an old
spoolbox sawn in half and mounted upon a board, so you have two or three
feet between the roll and the take-up spool.  Put a hand crank on each.
Balance each crank, because you'll find you can turn faster and more
smoothly that way.  Get some "drafting-table cover" for the surface of
the table.  It's made so that it can be cut into without harm, and it
self-repairs, sort of.

When taping, it is often not appropriate to cut off a tiny piece until
one end of it is fastened in place.  This allows the use of the roll of
tape as a handle for moving it about.  Place a single-edge razor blade
against the tape on the paper where you wish to cut it, and tear the
tape against the blade.  This is a good way to get your tape square to
the edge of the paper or to a series of holes.

Although the single-edge razor blade and the X-Acto knife are both
useful, if I were limited to one, it would be the razor blade.  Buy the
box of 50 or 100 at the hardware store.  Scissors and tweezers are
rarely helpful, but I have them available.

Instead of tweezers, use the point of a blade to carry a tiny piece of
tape into place.

At my age, I find it helpful to have a binocular magnifier that I wear
on my head.  Mine is an OptiVisor, made by the Donegan Optical Co. of
15549 West 108th Street, Lenexa, Kansas, 66219.

For some work, you'll find it helpful to fasten the paper securely to
the repair table.  Use Scotch removable tape, in the blue box, for this.
This method is especially helpful for "cut-in" inlaid repairs, where you
are replacing a badly damaged area with a new piece you have fabricated
by duplicating from another section of the same roll.  (Never overlap
paper; always cut an inlay by cutting through both pieces of paper,
properly immobilized, simultaneously.)

To keep a piece of tape from jumping as you try to put it into place,
exhale slowly upon it, so that your moist breath can help conduct the
static electricity away.

For a long cut or tear, whether horizontally or vertically along the
roll, always use a series of small pieces of tape that do not overlap,
rather than one long one.  If you're having trouble getting the pieces
to hold in the right spot as you put the tape in place, use the Scotch
removable (blue box) tape first, in several little pieces.  This allows
you to fiddle with the repair until you get it right.  Once you are
ready, you can remove the temporary tape, one or two pieces at a time,
and replace it with your permanent tape.

--Peter Neilson
  Sanford, NC